The Accidental Invention: The Story of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Philadelphia Cream Cheese, a legendary brand in the dairy sector, was first created in 1872 by William Lawrence, an American dairyman in Chester, New York. While attempting to replicate the French cheese Neufchâtel, Lawrence accidentally produced a richer, creamier cheese by adding extra cream. This new cheese quickly became popular, and in 1880, distributors named it “Philadelphia” to leverage the city’s reputation for high-quality food production, even though it was never made there.

The origins of Philadelphia Cream Cheese reflect Lawrence’s inventive nature. Neufchâtel, the cheese he sought to emulate, is a soft, slightly crumbly variety from Normandy, known for its tangy flavor. However, Lawrence’s creation turned out to be smoother and richer, thanks to his addition of cream. This happy accident led to what we now recognize as cream cheese, which gained rapid popularity for its unique taste and texture.

In 1880, Lawrence collaborated with New York cheese distributor A.L. Reynolds to expand the product's market reach. Recognizing its marketing potential, Reynolds branded the cheese as “Philadelphia,” capitalizing on the city’s esteemed reputation in dairy production, which helped build consumer trust and popularity.

This branding approach proved highly effective. Philadelphia Cream Cheese became a household name, celebrated for its creamy texture and versatility in both sweet and savory dishes. Over the years, the brand has broadened its offerings to include various flavors and forms, such as whipped and spreadable options, to suit different consumer tastes.

Despite its name, Philadelphia Cream Cheese has always been produced in New York. The brand’s association with Philadelphia was a marketing choice, but it has since become a core part of its identity. Today, owned by Kraft Heinz, Philadelphia Cream Cheese remains one of the top-selling cream cheese brands worldwide, a testament to the quality and innovation William Lawrence introduced to the dairy industry over a century ago.
The Accidental Invention: The Story of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

The Global Journey and Significance of Mangoes

The mango, a fruit beloved by many, is native to northeast India, northwestern Myanmar, and Bangladesh. From these origins, it spread throughout Asia naturally and with human assistance. Fossil records, dating back 25 to 30 million years, confirm the mango's center of origin in these regions. This ancient lineage underscores its long-standing presence and significance in human history.

Cultivated for over 6000 years, mangoes have been revered in many cultures. They hold a special place in various traditions, symbolizing love and prosperity. Today, the mango is arguably the most widely consumed fresh fruit worldwide, with global production exceeding 17 million metric tons annually. Mexico stands out as the largest exporter of mangoes, showcasing the fruit's economic importance on a global scale.

The domestication and cultivation of mangoes began in the Indian subcontinent. Historical records suggest that Buddhist monks introduced mango plants to Malaya and eastern Asia as early as the 4th and 5th centuries BCE. By the 10th century CE, Persian traders had carried mangoes to the Middle East and East Africa. The Portuguese, arriving in India in the 15th century, further spread the fruit to South America, the Philippines, and West Africa. Today, mangoes are cultivated commercially in tropical and subtropical regions around the world.

The name "mango" is derived from the Latin "Mangifera indica," meaning "mango-bearing plant from India." This reflects the fruit's deep roots in Indian culture. The mango belongs to the Anacardiaceae family, which includes poison ivy, cashews, and pistachios. Its versatility is evident in the many names it goes by worldwide, such as manga, mangga, mangot, mangou, and mangue.

Mangoes come in over 50 varieties, displaying a vibrant range of colors from greenish and yellowish to reddish, often with hints of purple, pink, orange-yellow, or red. This diversity adds to their appeal, making them a staple in cuisines and diets across the globe.

In conclusion, the mango's journey from its ancient origins to its current global prominence highlights its enduring appeal and cultural significance. As both a cherished fruit and a valuable agricultural commodity, the mango continues to play a vital role in societies around the world.
The Global Journey and Significance of Mangoes

Licorice in Middle East

The licorice plant (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is a blue-flowering pea with violet blossoms and spiky leaves. The plant grows to a height of 3–4 feet (90–120 cm). It prefers sandy soil with free drainage. Only after 3 years of growth are the roots thick enough to be harvested.

It has been used for medicinal purposes for millennia. Historically, the dried rhizome and root of this plant were employed medicinally by the Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Indian, and Roman civilizations as an expectorant and carminative.

It was said that Emperor Shennong classified more than 300 different medicinal plants, and one of the most important plants he classified was licorice. Shennong himself believed licorice could be used as an antidote to toxins, to reduce aches and pains, and to cure other ailments.

The earliest evidence of the use of licorice comes from the ancient tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. Licorice root was amongst the many treasures found in the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb from 1350 BC.

References to licorice have also been made on Assyrian tablets dating back to the second or third millennia BC.

The early Egyptians and Assyrians are known to have cultivated the ‘sweet root’ that was later imported to China, where it has been used for centuries under the name ‘Gan Cao’. The Ancient Egyptians believed licorice endowed the recently deceased with the ability to keep evil spirits at bay.

In ancient Scythia, which today is a region that encompasses Iran and parts of eastern Europe, licorice was cultivated, and by the third century BC, it was exported to Greece.

In Medical School of Salerno (VIII–IX century AD) the work Regimen sanitatis carefully examined licorice and its pharmacological properties acquiring the knowledge derived from outstanding Arabic medical scientists like Mohammed Ibn Zakaria Abu Bekr Alrazi (“Rhazes”, 850–925 AD.) and Ibn Sina (“Avicenna”, 980–1037 AD.).

Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the famous physician and philosopher, said in the Canone of Ibn Sina, that: “the infused licorice purifies the voice and the trachea, and is useful in disorders and diets.” He used this plant in treating his patients nine centuries ago.

The Cluniac monks are thought to have ‘discovered’ licorice when accompanying the Crusaders in the Middle East, where it was already a popular drink and a suitable alternative to the banned substance, alcohol. It is thought that they then grew licorice in their herb garden at Pontefract.
Licorice in Middle East

History and discovery of terpenes

Terpenes are aromatic compounds found in many plants. The common plant sources of terpenes are tea, thyme, cannabis, Spanish sage, and citrus fruits (e.g., lemon, orange, mandarin). The term 'Terpene' is derived from the term 'turpentine'. They are responsible for the odor of pine trees and for the colors of carrots and tomatoes. β-Carotene, found in carrots, and vitamin A are both terpenes.

The essential oils were used in the ancient Egypt for various ceremonies. Camphor was introduced by Arabs around 11th century.

The method of getting plant essential oils via fatty extraction was identified by the early Middle Ages. The process of distillation of oils from rosemary and sage was described by Arnaud de Villanosa (1th century).

Analyses of oils obtained from plants started by French botanist Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière in 1818. Dumas proposed the name ‘Terpene” derived from turpentine. In 1887, Otto Wallach proposed that isoprenoid unit (5C) is present always in terpenes.

When Otto Wallach began his systematic studies of the terpenes, he observed that individual terpene structures contained multiples of a 5-carbon unit that allowed them to be classified according to the number of such units they contained. The canonical C5 unit proved to be isoprene, which Wallach recognized as the core terpenoid structure.

The structure of camphor was discovered by Bredt in the year 1893, that of pinene via Wagner in year 1894 and that of citral by Tiemann in the year 1895.

The structure of beta carotene from carrot was isolated by Wackenrodder and its correct molecular formula was determined by Will Statter.
History and discovery of terpenes

Olmecs civilization and cocoa

There is much evidence for much earlier use, but most historical accounts of Theobroma cacao begin with the Olmecs, a civilization that predominated in present day Mexico, on the Gulf coast, and whose influence extended as far south as Honduras or Nicaragua, from around 1400 to 400 BC.

The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico. They built large stone heads. The Olmec broke down ripe cacao pods to make a drink from the sweet pulp inside.

The staple of the Olmec diet was maize, which sat overnight in tall urns filled with water and wood ash, or sometimes lime and then pulverized shells of snails. They’d beat the grain into a doughy mass, then serve it to the masters often fortified by the dark, magical substance they; extracted from the bean, cocoa.

The Olmec women serve it as thick, bitter-tasting drink, stimulating, nourishing and they believed to healing as well.

The word cacao is derived from the Olmec and the subsequent Mayan languages (Kakaw) and the chocolate-related term cacahuatl is Nahuatl derived from Olmec/Mayan etymology.
Olmecs civilization and cocoa

History of chocolate in Europe

Cocoa first arrived in Europe in 1528. Cocoa was considered divine in origin and in 1737 the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus named the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao, not its official botanical named, from the Greek word ambrosia.

After spotting Aztec Indians grinding cocoa beans in Mexico and using them to make a beverage, a recipe found its way into Spain. Beginning in Spain and then throughout the rest of Europe, cocoa preceded coffee and tea s a stimulating rink and by the end of the seventeenth century there were chocolate houses all over the continent.

The original hot cocoa recipe was a mixture of ground cocoa beans, water, wine and peppers. It didn't take long for Spaniards to begin heating the mixture and sweetening it with sugar. After being introduced in England, milk was added to the after dinner treat.

By 1828, the first cocoa powder producing machine had been developed, which generated a less acidic, processed cocoa. The new form of cocoa was easier to blend with warm milk or water. In 1848, the first real ‘eating chocolate’ was invented, produced from addition of coca butter and sugar to cocoa liquor.

In the United Kingdom in 1847, Joseph Fry was the first to produce a plain eating chocolate bar, made possible by the introduction of coca butter as an ingredient. In 1876, the Swiss, by mixing cocoa power and power milk, developed milk chocolate.

Today, there are two types of warmed chocolate drinks. Hot cocoa is the less fatening variety made with milk and real chocolate. Hot chocolate is a velvety textured drink, made with various spices or liqueurs.
History of chocolate in Europe

Origin and the history of blackcurrant

The genus Ribes, was classified to the Saxifragaceae family originally, but was later placed within the Grossulariaceae family on the basis of morphological traits such as the presence of inferior ovaries, syncarpous gymnosperm and fleshy fruit. The blackcurrants are natives of Sweden and northern parts of Russia, as well as the northern counties of England.

The word “currant” is originating from the ancient Greek word for the city Corinth and was used to illustrate grapes grown in the region. Early references to Ribes currants use words like corinthes, corans, currans, and bastarde corinthes. The known blackcurrant culture in farms and gardens dates back at least as far as the Renaissance in Europe.

Blackcurrants have been cultivated in northern Europe for more than400 years and records were first described by the 17thcentury herbalists, e.g. Gerard (1636), referring to the use of blackcurrants as ingredients in tea and medical concoctions.

The use of blackcurrants fruit as a herbal medicine emerged in the Middle Ages. In the 16th century, European herbalists started to recommend Ribes berries or their syrup for the treatment of several illnesses, including bladder stones and liver disorders, cough and lung ailments.

In England blackcurrants were once called ‘squinancy berries’ because they were used to treat quinsy.

These small berries don’t appear to have been cultivated until around 1500. During 1700s , blackcurrants were domesticated in eastern Europe and sold to farmer’s markets in Russia. Blackcurrants were introduced in the USA along with red currants in the seventeenth century, but received little interest in terms of their domestication and cultivation.

During the Second World War blackcurrant cultivation was encouraged by British government due to in part the fruit’s suitability to the UK weather and the berries’ high content of vitamin C.

Nowadays blackcurrants are the leaders Ribes crop worldwide and are still mainly processed rather than used fresh, due to their strong flavor.
Origin and the history of blackcurrant

Ancient history of butter

History of butter
Butter is made churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is essentially a fat of milk. Butter is used as a spread and condiment, as well as in cooking applications.

Butter started in Mesopotamian some where between 9000 and 8000 before century. At that time butter was made from sheep or goat’s milk.

For ancient Greek and Rome butter is considered a food fit for barbarians. In Northern Europe, butter was also used to prevent kidney and bladder stones.

The ancient dwellers of India relating to butter making, dating back to 1500-200BC when Hindus of that time gave young married couple a ‘bridal feast’ consisting of milk, honey and butter.

Until the 19th century, majority of butter was made by hand.

In 1860s, first butter appeared in United States. Now a days margarine is taken over butter consumption due to less expensive and perceived as being healthier.
Ancient history of butter

Mango in India

Mango cultivation probably originated in India, and it was estimated that mango cultivation to have began at least 4000 years ago.

This fruit is intimately associated with the history of India agriculture and civilization and it enjoys a royal status in the country when compared to the other growing places. Ancient Sanskrit literature described the mango as ‘king of fruits;. Ayurvedic medicine recognizes mangoes as an aphrodisiac and in some ancient n texts it is written that the ripe mango increases sexual energy and stamina.

The first group of people to spill the beans and initiate trade of the fruit were peripatetic Buddhist monks four or five centuries BC. A mango tree is depicted in friezes on the stupa of Bharut, which was constructed around 100 BC.

Available records indicate that the soldiers of Alexandra the Great has come across grove in Indus Valley. 

Traders and monks from India possibly introduced superior elections of mango into South-east Asia: however, vegetative propagation was unknown in India until after the arrival of the Portuguese in Goa in the 15th century.

During Mughal time, Akbar the Great paid the greatest tribute to mango who established an orchard of one lakh mango trees, designated as ‘Lakh-Bagh’ in Darbhanga in erstwhile Bihar State.

The mango tree and fruit are referred in the travelogues of ancient travelers including Huan tsang, Ibn Hankal and Ibn Batuta of which the Chinese traveler Huan-tsang is the first one to bring mango to the notice of the outside world during 632-645 AD.
Mango in India

Brief history of mango

The wild mango originated in the foothills of the Himalayas in India and Burma. The first group of people to spill the beans and initiate trade of the fruit were peripatetic Buddhist monks four or five centuries BC.

The mango was cultivated in Java at least as early as AD 900-1100, when the temple at Borobudur was built and faced with carvings of the Buddha in contemplation under a mango tree.

The Chinese traveler Hwen Tsang, who visited India during the first half of the seventh century AD, brought the mango home with him to China.

One theory holds that mangoes first reached Africa by way of Persia in the tenth century. Traders from Portugal introduced mangoes to Brazil in the 1700s and to Barbados in 1742. From there, mangoes then began popping up all over the world.

The cultivation of the fruits began in Mogul, India, where the fruit is still considered sacred and is thought to have aphrodisiac effects. In the 16th century, a special technique employing grafting was developed for propagating the mango.

As early as the sixteenth century, the name ‘mangas’ was used for the mango in the Greek Work, ‘Colloquies on Simples and Drugs of India’. The earliest mentioned of mango tree, Mangifera indica, which means ‘the great fruit bearer’, is found in Hindu scriptures dating back to 4000 BC.

The mango is a member of the Anachardiaceae family which includes poison ivy, cashews, and pistachios. It is also known as manga, mangga, mangot, mangou, and mangue in other parts of the world.

The mango comes in over 50 varieties, ranging in color from greenish, yellowish, to reddish, often tinged with purple, pink, orange-yellow, or red.
Brief history of mango

History of vitamin C

Another name for vitamin C that derives from the Latin word ascorbic, which means ‘without scurvy’.

Discovery of vitamin C is one of the biggest achievements in biochemical area. It was discovered by novel prize winner Albert Szent-Gyorgyi in 1928.

In that year Szent-Gyorgyi isolated hexuronic acid as the factor that prevented browning of decaying fruit. In 1932 it was proved to be the agent which prevents scurvy.

Written records dating back to ancient Egypt containing the earliest reports of scurvy, a dreaded human disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. Scurvy has remained constant threat to humans, causing death and misery whenever dietary sources of vitamin C became scarce.

Aristotle in 450 BC described the symptoms of scurvy, which include muscle weakness, lethargy, extreme fatigue, joint pains, bleeding gums, depression and eventually death.

During the 17th and early 18th centuries, many cures for scurvy were suggested and there was some evidence that fresh fruit could help.

In 1747, Dr. James Lind discovered that adding citrus fruit to the diet will helped prevent scurvy.

The popularity do vitamin C as one of the most widely used and highly valued vitamin began when Dr. Linus Pauling proposed in 1970 that the daily intake of vitamin C needs to be much higher than the official recommended daily intake of 60mg per day. He published his book in vitamin C: Vitamin C and the Common Cold. 

History of vitamin C

 

History of potato industry

The potato originated in South America where the Incas cultivated and consumed it about 13000 years ago, therefore the history of the potato in Europe and elsewhere in the world began after the discovery of the Americas.

It was probably introduce to colonists from England via Bermuda in 1621. Although potatoes as a crop originated and were grown in South America, they had to travel to Europe, be accepted there as a food crop, and then return to North America for introduction.

The first starch processing plant was founded in the United States in 1831, with more than 10 plants emerging in the following years later.

Potato chips have a United States origin dating back to 1853 in a hotel kitchen at Saratoga Springs, New York. The first chipping plant was established in Ohio in 1895, and in 2009 there were about 130 chipping plants.

During the 1920s, Herman Lay developed the mechanical potato peeler, which simulated production for a mass market. About the same time, Laura Scudder pioneered the packaging of potato chips in sealed bags, initially made from waxed paper, later from cellophane.

Research in processing and construction of low cost facilities during World War II set the stage for greatly expanded potato processing.

History of potato industry

Corn during ancient times

The word maiz is thought to be derived from mahiz, which may be the Taino word for corn, or Aztec word for ‘our life’. Corn (Zea mays L.) is native to the Americas and is their most important cereal crop.

Corn originated in Mexico, evolving form the wild grass Teosinte (Zea mays sp. mexicana).

The domestication of several agricultural plants began before 6500 BC and was flourishing by 2000 BC in numerous areas within and beyond the Basin of Mexico.

The first people to grow corn were Native Americans living in Mexico’s valley of Tehuacan about 6,000 years ago before spread southward throughout Mesoamerica and the South American continent. The early wild corn found in the Tehuacan is chapalote.

They held elaborate ceremonies when planting and harvesting corn and used corn patterns to decorate pottery, sculpture, and other art.

When the first wild maize plants cross-pollinated with another wild grass, they had only small heads of grain. Over time, wild maize became cross pollinated with another kind of grass.

When the American Indians first began to cultivate corn, perhaps it was a already a hybrid. For the Maya, maize was the foundation of their existence and the maize god was the father of world creation. For them, life was not possible without maize. Maize was the nutritional foundation of their diet.

The Aztec nobility ate corn as round flat breads know as tlaxcalli, which varied in size, color and thickness. The tlaxcalli was steamed under cloth or on a hot surface and served open or folded.

Maize was unknown in Europe prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1492. By that time, Native Amerindians cultivated maize over much of the tropical and temperate portions of the western hemisphere from southern Canada to south central Chile.
Corn during ancient times

History of honeydew fruit

Honeydew is a fruit that comes from African origin. The name honeydew, is actually the American name given to the White Antibes, as was named by its French and Algerian cultivators.

Some people thought honeydew to have originated in Persia. It was prized by ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago, appearing in Egyptian hieroglyphics that date back to 2400 BC. Ancient Egyptian ancestors considered honeydews a scared food.

Honeydew melons were also cultivated by the Romans and were introduced into Europe during the Roman Empire but did not become well known until the French royal court’s love affair with the fruit in the fifteenth century.

Honeydew were not cultivated in Europe until the late Middle Ages, except perhaps in Moorish Spain.

Columbus carried honeydew melon seeds to America and Spanish explorer settling in what is now California cultivated honeydew melon. It has been an important commodity in America ever since then.

History of honeydew fruit

Earliest Written History of Herbs

Of the first known herbal, said to have been written by the legendary Chinese emperor. Shen Nung, nearly 5000 years ago, only part of the text survived long enough to be recorded by subsequent writers though many later Chinese herbals base upon on it.

Shen Nung, was the father of agriculture and herbal medicine. He was given credit for authorship of the first native herbal, the Sheng Nung Pen Ts’ao on the basis of his own experiment.

During Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), physician Tuo Hua collected various herbal formulas for beauty, including powders, ointments and pastes.

Sumerian clay tablets gave us a literature in the form of small clay tablets. Dated from the late fourth millennium BC, they are the earliest known written records about plants in Western civilization.

Other herbal text from early times include Egyptian papyri recording the medicinal uses of herbs, dating from 2800 BC.

The latter mention about marjoram, mint, juniper and other familiar herbs, together with aromatic gums such as frankincense, spices such as cinnamon and cassia and unguents and ointments made by expressing the oil from herbs or by macerating them in fatty oils such as castor oil.

The Egyptians imported herbs and spices along with the knowledge of their use from Babylon and India.

In Egypt the dividing line between medicinal and cosmetic recipes was often blurred and the priests, who generally controlled the manufacture of the substances, were also in-charge of offering of incense and fragrant oils in the temples and the precious ointments that were used for embalming the bodies of the high ranking Egyptians.

Father of modern medicine Hippocrates listed hundred of herbal varieties all taken together to prove and establish the significance , importance and usage of herbs as a means to cure various disease.

In about 500 BC, Herodotus listed about 700 herbs and their uses, many of which remain valid today. In the first century AD, Dioscorides produced a herbal guide, which is still reference on the practice of natural medicines.
Earliest Written History of Herbs

History of Food Flavor

Flavorings are a major category of ingredients intentionally added to food. It is a sensation evoked with a range of technical terms in Greek and Latin.

Their history began when people discovered that components characteristics of the aroma of natural products could be enriched by simple methods.

The known utilization of spices and herbs extends over some 5000 years, starting with the ancient Egyptian. One of spices and herbs functions according to the historical period was the enhancing of food flavour.

The flavour industry has developed only after the past 160 years from small beginnings in companies specializing in the processing and marketing of natural botanicals such as the herbs and spices, vanilla beans, vegetables drugs and the distillation of essential oils and aromatic essences, the isolation of aromatic chemicals from these products and drug extraction.

Systematic development began in the 13th century, when pharmacies started to prepare so-called remedy oils and later recorded the properties and physiological effects of these oils in pharmacopeias.

Many essential oils currently used by perfumes and flavorists were originally prepared by distillation in pharmacies in the 16th and 17th centuries.

It was not until the latter half of the 19th century that chemicals began to realize the flavouring possibilities of synthetic aromatic chemicals.

In 1858, vanilla was first crystallized from an alcoholic extract of vanilla beans by Gobley.

Methyl salicylates followed in 1859 as ‘artificial wintergreen oil’ and benzaldehyde in 1870 as ‘artificial butter almond oil’ were synthesized by chemical industry for fruity odor.

It was 1872 before Charles established its empirical formula and two years later before Tieman and Haarman reported its structure and later Reimer confirmed it by synthesizing vanillin from guaianol.

Tieman and Haarman later founded a company, Haarman and Reimer and started the first industrial production of vanillin.

At about the same time organic chemists were preparing a wide range of highly odorous aromatic chemicals which were later to be of great value to the flavour industry.

The flavor industry emerged in the mid nineteenth century processed foods began to be manufactured on large scale.

In the early part of the twentieth century, Germany’s powerful chemical industry assumed the technological lead in flavour production.

A solution of esters for use as artificial fruit essences were exhibited in a trade fair in London and shortly after were in use in the United States.

In 1869, the first book of artificial flavouring formulations was published anonymously in Philadelphia.

In 1916, Walters manual for the essence industry was released. Its named ‘Manual for the Essence Industry.’ The intermediate period between the late 1950s and the early 1960s, produce major breakthrough in raspberry and strawberry flavors.

Today the industry is dominated by several very large multinational flavour and fragrance companies mainly prime in natural products and/or synthetic chemicals which are used in the compounding of an almost limitless range of flavorings and fragrance products.
History of Food Flavor

Origin of Agriculture

Agriculture was the first art or trade practiced by man.

At the end of the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), some 12,000 years ago, after hundreds of thousands of years of biological and cultural evolution, human societies were able to make increasingly varied, sophisticated and specialized tools.

The treatments of ores and the working of metals called for a class with special knowledge. Copper was the first metal to be employed and it was in use from as early as 6400 BC, initiating a period sometimes called the Copper Age.

During the hunter gatherer stage of human development, people gathered grain from various wild grasses, fruits, and roots; hunted large and small wild animals and fished.

The Neolithic revolution encompassed a shift from nomadic hunting and gathering to planting and staying in one place.

Near 8000 BC, people made the major technological advance of domesticating animals and plants.

Observations of a very early date that bear on their relationship have come down today from the civilization that developed in the Sumerians valley of the Euphrates and Tigris.

Large scales of agriculture began when the valley first hooked animals up to a plow and to wheeled carts. These peoples also built ships, which mean they soon need to devise methods of navigation across the sea.

The early part of this agriculture revolution or Neolithic revolution also occurred independently in the Middle East, the orient, New Guinea and the Americas.

A settled agricultural civilization demands tools. Technology developed. The age of stone passed into the age of metals.

The shift from hunter gathering to agriculture allowed, or perhaps caused, the population to grow. The population density should expand by 10 to 100 fold. They developed the urban centers.

The development of organized agriculture along with the domestication of animals led to the development of urban centers; as some scholar remarks, ‘without agriculture three is no culture’.
Origin of Agriculture

History of Food Additive

History of Food Additive
Before the Civil War, people raised most of what they ate and processed it themselves and food additives were limited mostly to home grown colorings and substances needed for preservation in storage vegetable and fruit juices, salt, spices, smoke.

Our system of food supply changed after the Civil War. Thousands of rural people flocked to the cities to work in factories, they now needed food grown and preserved by someone else. Manufacturers of food products sprang up almost everywhere.

Food purity as such was not a major consideration. Cheap and handy methods of preserving foods were important to profits and scientific knowledge of food chemistry was practically nonexistent.

Dangerous adulteration of foods was commonplace. Chemicals to keep products looking good until they reached the consumer or just to hide the small and look of spoilage were used without much restraint.

The problem of food additives became acute. Supplying the rapid growing urban population required constantly expanding facilities and speed of production took precedence over both quaintly and safety.

For example, copper sulphate, a powerful emetic also known as blue vitriol, was added to canned vegetables to give them that fresh, green look; and salicylic acid, borax and formaldehyde were used generously - and carelessly.

Food and drug protection became an operating function of the Federal Government under the strong leadership of one man. Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, chief chemist for the US Department of Agriculture in Washington DC, announced publicly that the American people were being steadily poisoned by the dangerous chemicals that were being added to food with reckless abandon.

To dramatize the problem and to learn more about the reactions of the human body to ingestion of these chemicals, he formed , in 1902, what became known as “Dr. Wiley’s Poison squad.” Twelve young healthy men, recruited from the Department of Agriculture, pledge to eat nothing except what Dr. Wiley prescribed.

Over a period five years, Poison Squad members were fed measured doses of many kinds of commonly –used food additives. Dr. Wiley was not only concerned about determining the affects of these additives he was also interested in stirring up the public about the need for a pure food law.

The efforts of Dr, Wiley and the publication of the book The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, which told of the fifth accompanying the production of meat and meat products, were powerful, moving forces that helped persuade Congress to pass the Food and Drug Act 1906 as well as the Meat Inspection Act of the same year.

In 1927, the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration, later to be named the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created.
History of Food Additive
Further reading: Food Additive

Food Flavor Before 19th Century

In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail to find seasoning. Today the influence of flavor in the world market place is no loess decisive. The rise and fall of corporate empires – of soft drinks companies, snack food companies and fast food chains - is frequently determined by how their products taste.

During the early days of history, people used mainly herbs and spices (whole or ground) to impart flavor to , or modify the flavor of, foods. It is to make food more appetizing, first by using spices and herbs and then by the extraction of fruits and aromatic plants during Middle Ages or distillation of essential oils.

The latter were predominantly used by pharmacists, and it was not until the 19th century that some people found out that essential oils can be used to impart flavor to foods.

It is believed that people began the practice of adding flavor to foods by marinating or soaking them in seasoned and salted liquid between the mid-1600s and the mid–1700s.

In the second half of the 19th century, chemists began to realize the flavoring potential of some synthetic chemicals e.g. vanillin.

Wohler and Liebig synthesized benzaldehyde in 1830 and this substance was identified in 1932 by Robiquet an Boutron-Charlard to be responsible for the odor of bitter almonds.

Thus was born the flavor industry around the middles of the 19th century.
Food Flavor Before 19th Century

History of Pasteurization

History of Pasteurization
Pasteurization is named for the French scientist Louis Pasture (1822-1895). In 1856, 34 year old Louis Pasteur began his fourth year as the Head of Sciences at the University of Lille in France.

In the fall of the same year, Maurice D’Argineau, a local businessman, found Pasteur in his cramped corner lab.

D’Argineau’s consistent failure to make wine from his fields of sugar beets without it going sour was driving him to financial ruin. Pasteur was particular intrigued by the problem since it hinted at the involvement of one of his pet interests and he readily agreed to study the matter.

Although he first experimented with this process in 1862, pasteurization was not put to use until the early twenty century.

In the United States pasteurization was championed by Alice Catherine Evans (1881-1975), a microbiologists who worked for the US department of Agriculture.

Evans suffered from a disease known as brucellosis (undulant fever) and in 1918 she discovered that brucella, the bacterium that caused her disease, could be found in cow’s milk.

Scientists eventually determined that brucella was not the only milk borne bacterium. Milk can harbor other bacteria – such as E. coli, salmonella, and listeria – which can cause harmful and even life threatening infectious in the young, the old, pregnant women and the infirm.

Indeed, unpasteurized cow’s milk was a very common cause of tuberculosis, typhoid fever and salmonellosis.

Evans advocated on behalf of pasteurization for years after her discovery. Finally in the 1930s, milk pasteurization became mandatory under US law.
History of Pasteurization